Witnesses said the ferry, the Seastreak Wall Street, was going too quickly when it approached the pier.

Passenger Sean Boyle told the local NBC affiliate that the ferry arrived "at full speed" and crashed "right into the pier."

"They didn't make any announcement," Mr Boyle added.

Another passenger, Bett Cebulas, said: "It was entirely normal... But it didn't stop this time."

Firefighters rush an injured commuter to an ambulance after an early morning ferry accident during Manhattan rush hour.

Television images showed a large gash in the hull of the vessel.

Many commuters were standing when the accident occurred, ready to disembark and many with mobile telephones in their hands, leaving them no way to absorb the shock of the collision.

"I was standing on the boat... and the next thing I know, I was six feet in the air," said Ashley Furman. Some passengers panicked as they tried to disembark.

Police and firefighters evacuated the injured from the scene on stretchers. Many were taken to area hospitals. Other passengers were covered in blankets as they awaited assistance on the pier.

A screen grab from WNYW's coverage of a ferry accident in lower Manhattan shows people being treated on the pier.

The cause of the accident was not immediately clear. Weather conditions were good at the time of the accident, with hardly any wind and good visibility.

"Basically, it was a hard landing," city transportation commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan told a brief news conference, explaining that the ferry was traveling at a speed of 10 to 12 knots when it missed its docking target.

Dozens of ferries bring thousands of commuters from New Jersey or Brooklyn to Manhattan every day, but accidents are rare.

In the most serious one, in October 2003, 11 people were killed and 70 others injured when a Staten Island ferry slammed into a pier at full speed.

An injured passenger of the Seastreak Wall Street ferry is aided by New York City firefighters. Two people are in critical condition and around 50 more injured.

The National Transportation Safety Board will lead the probe and has assigned 12 investigators to the case, it said in a statement. The first investigators were due at the scene overnight.

Sobriety tests were given to crew members, and preliminary results were negative, the coast guard spokesman said.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg briefly visited the scene following the accident.

"We were pulling into the dock. The boat hit the dock. We just tumbled on top of each other. I got thrown into everybody else. ... People were hysterical, crying," said Ellen Foran, 57, of Neptune City, New Jersey.

This frame grab taken from WABC News Channel 7 aerial video shows damage to the commuter ferry in Lower Manhattan after it made a hard landing at the dock.

Firefighters were still carrying people away on flat-board stretchers an hour after the crash.

Passenger Frank McLaughlin, 46, whose home was filled with 1.5 metres of water in the storm, said he was thrown forward and wrenched his knee in the impact.

Other passengers were bloodied when they banged into walls and toppled to the floor, he said.

Dee Wertz, who was on shore, waiting for the ferry, saw the impact.

"It was coming in a little wobbly," she said.

"It hit the right side of the boat on the dock hard, like a bomb."

After the impact, the boat was able to dock normally. Ms Wertz said passengers raced off the ferry once the ramp was down.

"I think people just wanted to get the heck off the boat as soon as they could," she said.

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Comments on this story

Winged Keel Posted at 9:31 AM January 10, 2013

They will have to start following a similar safety drill as the airlines before departure.
They would have to remain seated until the doors are open.

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